KARACHI: Renowned Islamic finance scholars have appealed to all universities of the country to develop faculty on Islamic finance and banking to promote banking education in Pakistan on Islamic fundamentals.
They said the share of Islamic banking was expected to grow up to 20% by the year 2020 and thereafter, Islamic banking was to build momentum to achieve faster growth. The share of Islamic banking in total deposits of the banking industry had surged to 12.8% as of June 30, 2015 and was consistently growing with a cumulative average growth rate of over 50% during the past 12 years.
To-date, five full fledge Islamic banks, one Islamic banking subsidiary and 17 banks with dedicated Islamic banking branches are operating in the country with over 1,700 branches spread all over the country.
Addressing a seminar jointly organized by Jamia Saqafat il Islamia and Karachi University Business School, the chief guest Dr Mufti Muhammad Zubair Usmani said that it is a gigantic task to promote Islamic banking and finance in the country and every institution should play its part so that we could get rid of interest based banking.
Mufti Zubair, who is Chairman of Shariah Board UBL and member of shariah boards of State Bank of Pakistan, Meezan Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank, further said that Islam promotes trade and follow the model of money-goods-money while interest based banking follow the money-money-money model. Islamic banking institution are assets based and share risk ownership on the assets while interest based banking only give loan at a specified rate.
Earlier, Chairman Jamiat Saqafat il Islamia, Molana Hidayat Ullah welcomed the audience and highlighted the aims and objective of the seminar. He said that one of the main purposes of the seminar is to eliminate the gap between Madaris and formal educational institutions including business schools and colleges.
Moreover, he said that it is the duty of all Muslim to differentiate between Halal and Haram, today we are gathered here to achieve the same goal. ‘It must be understood that Halal is not only constrained with the food items, it covers all your life and affairs, therefore, it is our prime duty to learn Islamic rules and fundamentals and get rid of Haram to lead a pious life,’ he added.
Dr Danish Pirzada, Chairman Karachi University Business School (KUBS) announced that his institute is launching different diploma and degree programs in Islamic Banking next year to impart knowledge on Islamic Banking and Finance to the youth.
He said that conventional institutions work on creative model while Madaris work on corrective model. It is most important to deal with the prevailing economic challenges by providing Shariah compliant solutions.
He said that we aim to facilitate the students of not only the conventional educational institutions but also the religious schools and madaris to bridge the gap between them. ‘Higher business studies in Islamic Banking and Finance will give both of them the opportunities to not only improve their knowledge and living standards but lives and afterlives of others also,’ he added.
Mufti Najeeb, Chairman Shariah Board Silk Bank also highlighted the importance of Islamic banking and finance and said that 75 percent Islamic teachings cover fundamental principles on how to deal with daily life affairs including how to spend, how to purchase and how to perform business transactions.
He said it is responsibility of the Islamic Scholars to impart and create awareness among the masses about Islamic Finance. Ulamas take the decision on keeping all the viewpoints in consideration and they know the ground reality as well so we need to keep that in mind in order to help the general public on the very important issue of banking.
Mufti Najeeb praised KUBS on becoming the pioneer institution in the country to introduce degree in Islamic Banking and I would appeal to rest of the institutions to come forward and follow the footprint. It is a dire need of the country and every institution should take the responsibility in this regard.
